Review of Jumper (2008) by Dawdlingpoet — 28 Nov 2021

I thought this was fairly entertaining fare and I liked the special effects, they were about what you would expect in this modern age, so that didn't let me down, however I felt that the story did. I liked the character of Millie but the main character of David, ie the main character the movie is all about, well, it just seemed flawed to me. I didn't feel as if I had any particular interest in this person, somehow. When he stole from the bank, as much as I suppose a part of me would think it would be cool to be able to do such a thing, I can't say I felt that I was hoping he wouldn't be caught or that I was overly excited for his situation. I think he seemed a bit too cocky perhaps but there was definitely something missing which made the movie just not work as well as I think it could have.

The special effects were good but I also feel that more of it could have been used and overall I was left feeling that it had better potential. The story itself seemed like one that had been done quite a number of times before and it just didn't really (get the joke) jump out at me. One tell tale sign is that this morning, after having watched it the night before, I couldn't remember exactly how it ended and I'd forgotten a fair bit about it which just proves that at least for me, it was quite unmemorable. I have to say though, the concept behind it is one that I liked, I always had a big imagination as a child and I like the thought of being able to teleport and go from one part of the world to another straight away, I think that perhaps if they changed the main character and if the story was just a bit more detailed or 'meatier' which is the word that comes to mind, if you know what I mean!, then it could have been alot better. I'm aware that this movie is based on a set of comic books and that in that respect, the story presumably had to stay true to the original comics, so it didn't have too much scope for change and I haven't read the original comics, I can only judge the movie on the movie alone.

On the more positive side, I thought that Samuel L Jackson was a good choice of actor for playing the villain Roland, as formulaic as that was he does have a bit of an 'other worldly' type look about him, especially with his dyed white hair and I also liked some of the shots of Italy and of course of the Colosseum. There are some nice camera angles and lighting used and it would have looked good on the big screen I can imagine. Also I liked seeing Jamie Bell (who played the lead role in Billy Elliot) in this, he portrayed his character of Griffin quite well, I thought given the type of character he was (as this fast and energetic guy), he looked the part.